In January 2014, Your Way Home Montgomery County was established as the county’s unified and coordinated housing crisis response system for families and individuals experiencing homelessness or at imminent risk of homelessness.

The vision of the your way home program

is to make the experience of homelessness in Montgomery County rare, brief and non-recurring. The common agenda among Your Way Home partners is to improve the housing stability, economic security and health of families and individuals experiencing or at imminent risk of homelessness. In 2014 Your Way Home established a bold goal of reducing homelessness by 50% over five years.

Since its inception in January 2014, Your Way Home has reduced homelessness in Montgomery County by 37%, as measured by the annual Point-In-Time count, which decreased from 464 in 2013 to 292 in 2018.

The major components of your way home

A Coordinated Entry System that uses both the VI-SPDAT and SPDAT assessment tools to prioritize people for housing and services based on vulnerability and diverts people from entering shelter unless absolutely necessary

A common agenda, a core set of guiding principles and a shared catalogue of metrics

A robust and multidisciplinary Street Outreach team that can be deployed anywhere in the county 24/7

Housing Resource Centers serve as a central location for coordinated response to housing crises for the most vulnerable families and individuals who are experiencing homelessness by providing Rapid Rehousing.

Transitional Housing for select populations, including transitional age youth, people fleeing abuse and violence at home, and people in early stages of substance abuse recovery, among others

Permanent Supportive Housing for people with significant barriers to permanent housing stability

Connections to mainstream and community services, including child care, food security, physical, mental and behavioral health, employment and job training, public benefits access and veterans’ services, among others

A broad cross-sector partnership that leverages and aligns federal, state, county and private funding sources to achieve greater impact.